Believe it or not! Even distant villages in India will soon have fast and affordable internet

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch not one, but three communication satellites in the next 18 months, paving the path towards high-speed Internet in India.

India overtook US last year to become the world’s second largest internet user base after China, but India is still behind many Asian countries when it comes to internet speed. Things are set to change in the next 18 months when Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to usher in an age of high-speed internet in the country with the launch of three communication satellites.

Indian space agency is all set to launch its prestigious GSAT-19 satellite, third in GSAT series to complete the mission to provide the sleepy Internet in India a significant boost to become a high-speed Internet nation.

Photo: REPRESENTATION IMAGE ISRO will launch the heaviest communication satellite in the first week of June

The project with three GSAT communications satellites — GSAT-19, GSAT-11 and GSAT-20 — will fulfill the future communication needs of Internet, television and smartphone connectivity in the country catering to more than half-a-billion users at a time, when the grid gets finally connected by the end of 2018.

GSAT-19 will be launched in June. With this launch, we will begin a new age of communication satellites. It is also the beginning of high-throughput satellites,” Tapan Misra, director of Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), told India Express.

Essentially, the new Internet high-speed connection will bring all your TV channels to your home via Internet without the need of cables or cable TV operators, with the GSAT series of satellites and related future launches, he said.

The country’s communications will be connected throughout with the GSAT series that will help both the government and private business ventures reach the remote areas of the country with services like banking, ATMs, reservation systems and telecommunication networks in a better and seamless manner.

To achieve countrywide connectivity, the upcoming GSAT-19, its sequel GSAT-11, scheduled to be launched in January 2018 with a data rate of 14 gigabytes and the third satellite GSAT-20 by the end of 2018 will complete the grid covering the whole country so that a very high-speed data transmission at 70 GB per second will become a reality.

Deviating from the traditional broad single beam, several beams will be used to cover smaller areas and GSAT-19 is equipped to use 8 narrow beams, GSAT-11 will have 16 beams and the next one with more beams.

The heavy satellites will be launched by the new rocket GSLV Mark-III, which will be ISRO’s heaviest rocket, starting this June. ISRO is testing the new 25 tonne cryogenic engine, which is three times bigger than the PSLV rockets or GSLV II rockets.